The Gung Ho () movement was first initiated in Shanghai in 1937. Some of the principal organizers were
Rewi Alley of New Zealand,
Edgar Snow, Nym Wales (
Helen Foster Snow), and
Ida Pruitt of the US, as well as a group of Chinese including
Hu Yuzhi (
胡愈之) and
Sha Qianli (
沙千里). In August 1938, the CICA was established. It was founded in the wartime capital
Hankow when China was engaged in the
Second Sino-Japanese War. Through the sponsorship of
Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Finance Minister Dr.
H. H. Kung supplied government financial support. The movement aimed to organize unemployed workers and refugees, increasing production to support the war effort. The goal was to replace industrial capacity lost to bombing by dispersing and giving workers voting shares in their CICs. The CICA organized small scale self-supporting
cooperatives, mainly in rural areas, to create employment for workers and refugees and produce goods for the war effort. In January 1939, the international arm ICCIC was established in Hong Kong. Ms.
Soong Ching-ling was elected honorary chair and the Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong, the Right Rev.
Ronald O. Hall to be chair, and Dr.
Chen Hansheng was appointed as secretary general. Rev. Dr. Walter Brooks Foley, pastor of Union Church of Manila, Philippines, serve on the international committee, along with leading Chinese businessmen in Manila Dee C. Chuan, Alfonso Sycip, and Yu Khe thai. Foley became president of the Philippine Association of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. In 1941, the Gung Ho movement reached its peak: around 3,000 cooperatives with a combined membership of nearly 300,000 people were functioning. Their factories produced more than 500 products for the local people, and a large number of blankets, uniforms and other army supplies for the battlefront. Ida Pruitt toured the United States to raise substantial financial support. The unique role of Gung Ho cooperatives in the war also won such international acclaim that the term "
gung-ho" became a famous slogan of the
U.S. Marine Corps. Adopting the literal meanings of the two characters separately as "work" and "together", the slogan entered the
English language as a term denoting whole-hearted dedication to a meaningful cause. Both the
Nationalist government of
Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist movement of
Mao Zedong supported the movement and tried to control it. Alley placated the
Nationalists but his sympathies and eventual loyalties were to the emerging
Communist government. In 1942, Alley was dismissed from Gung Ho by the government of
Chiang Kai-shek. ==Revival==